Red river channel catfish die off 18,000+

say i herd on the news a short anouncement that a massive die off mostly channel cats on the red river happened last week! some 18,000+ channel cats have been found dead. still unknown but they mentioned a possible disease as a cause. anyone have more info on this horrifiying storie???

say i herd on the news a short anouncement that a massive die off mostly channel cats on the red river happened last week! some 18,000+ channel cats have been found dead. still unknown but they mentioned a possible disease as a cause. anyone have more info on this horrifiying storie???

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I was in the chat room with a guyfrom up there just last night. He said it was a bacteria that was killing them but was localized to a 2 mile streach of the river and they didnt expect it to spread. He said they picked up 2000 in one day. Very scary and sad.

I was in the chat room with a guyfrom up there just last night. He said it was a bacteria that was killing them but was localized to a 2 mile streach of the river and they didnt expect it to spread. He said they picked up 2000 in one day. Very scary and sad.

Just the fact that there were 18,000 cats in a 2 mile stretch of river amazes me! You guys are pretty spoiled:wink:. I hope whatever happened gets taken care of. It is a real shame to lose that many fish.

I live in Grand forks were this is happening. I need to clarify a couple things.

The dead cat count was 1,600 not 18,000..

the stretch is from our south side of the Riverside dam south to a little past our Thompson ND bridge area. about a 12-14 mile stretch.

it seems to be only in this area and not due to any sewage dumping or anything to that nature. althought the dnr and biologists are still testing fish they are able to find floating either dead or near dead.

the bacteria is affecting the fish because of them having a low emune system due to lower than normal water and therefore lower oxygene in take.

I have noticed that during my outings that I saw many BIG fish floating in small groups or in near areas of each other on Red.

hope this helps in a few areas. also hope we get rid of this problem soon. It makes me upset to see all of these fish floating and bloated.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - Two bacterial infections likely were the cause of a large catfish die-off in a stretch of the Red River upstream from this city, preliminary test results show.

A near-dead catfish captured for testing at a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources pathology lab in St. Paul tested positive for both columnaris and aeromonas bacteria, staff said. Additional tests are planned to confirm the diagnosis.

More than 1,600 channel catfish are believed to have died earlier this month. They ranged in size from 5 inches to about 30 inches.

Lab staff said water temperatures and low river flows in the Grand Forks area might have created the right conditions to weaken the catfish and enable the bacterial infections to strike.

Ling Shen, a DNR fisheries health specialist in St. Paul, said the likely scenario is that columnaris affected the gills and weakened the immune system of the fish that was tested, and aeromonas occurred as secondary infection and caused the rest of the damage.

Officials also are testing for two viruses, as a precaution. Shen said results will not be available for some time.

Lynn Schlueter, Red River fisheries biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said he was not surprised by the preliminary finding.

''Both of those are fairly common diseases, both in hatchery situations and in the wild,'' he said. ''And with any disease like this, you've got to have all of the factors in place and just right for the stuff to really blossom. Typically, a lot of this is temperature dependent. It's out there and doesn't show up until you get that first blast-off of cold.''

Biologists will be working to determine exactly what made the catfish susceptible to infection.

''While we might not be able to prevent it, at least we can start being aware of what triggered it,'' Schlueter said.

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This is from the Crookston Daily Times.
Luckily, the Red River of the North is a very strong fishery and is sure to rebound quickly.

The Red is by no means not worthy of fshing here still. there were alot of BIG fish dead but the majority were smaller ones. I have still been catching larger cats (upper 20's ) which have not been affected . I know to the north and on the redlake towards crookston they are still catching nice ones too. average size for Grand forks area is 15 with 25's still to be caught .

I spoke to a friend of mine in Fargo and he is still catching 15-25 pounders regularly. these fish will rebound fast so come on down to Grand Forks and give it a whirl for some nice BIG cat action.

The dead fish were found in a pretty large area of the Red yet it is still fairly localized considering the Red River is over 500 miles long. They have found traces of two naturally occurring bacteria that have been triggered by another factor to make it lethal to catfish. The Minnesota DNR and North Dakota Game and Fish are still trying to find that cause.